The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-04-22
taph; "Here lies tho Victim Of dissipating

a taph, There lies tho victim Of dissipatinl
. associations!" ~
y Another test by which you can find whcthe
! your secret society ID right or wrong Is tn
effect II has ON your secular occupation.
can understand how, through an institution
q man can reach commercial success. know
J some men have formed their best business
relations through such channel. II tho 10
} crct society lbs advantaged you In an hon
orablc calling, II Is good one. But hos YOU
credit faileda Arc bargain makers NOR,
anxious how they trust you with bale Of
, goodsl Have tho mon whose names wer.
down In the commercial agency A before
they entered the society been going down
since in commercial standingl Then lool
out. You and every day know OF CONNER
cial establishments going to ruin through the
social excuses Of one or two members, thor
fortune beaten to death with ball PLAYERS
bat or cut amidships with the front Prov oil
the regatta, or going down under the swift
hoofs Of tho fast horses, or drowned in the
large potations Of cognac or Monongahela.
That secret society was the Loeb Earn Their
business was the Vile du Havre They
struck, and the Vile du Havre went under!
The third test by which you may know
whether the society to which you belong Is
good or bad is this: What is its effect on your
sense Of moral and religious obligation! Now,
II should take the names Of oil the people in
this audience this morning and put them ON
roll, and then should lay that roll back Of
this organ, and 100 years from now some one
should take that roll and call 1t from A to z,
there would not one Of you answer. I say
that any society that makes me forget that
fact is a bad society. When 60 to Chicago
I am sometimes perplexed ut Buffalo, as
suppose many travellers are, as to whether it
is better to take tho Lake Shore route or the
Michigan Central, equally expeditions and
equally safe, getting to their destination at
the same time But suppose that hear that
on one route the track is torn up, the bridges
are down and the switches are unlocked, it
will not take me great while to decide which
road to take.
Now, here are two roads in the future-the
Christian and the unchristian, the safe and
the unsafe. Any institution or any associa-
ton that confuses my ideas in regard to that
fact is bad institution and bad association.
had prayers before l Joined that society,
did have them afterward? I attended the
house of God before connected myself with
that union, do absent myself from religious
influences3 Which would you rather have
in your hand when you come to die-a pack
Of cards or Bible9 Which would you rather
have pressed to your lips in the closing
moment-the cup Of Belshazzarean wassail or
the chalice of Christian communion? Who
would you rather have for your pallbearers-
the elders Of Christian church or the com.
panions whose conversation was full of slang
and innuendo! Who would you rather have
for your eternal companions-those men who
spend their evenings betting, gambling,
swearing, carousing and telling vile stories,
or your little child, that bright girl whom the
Lord took! Oh. you would not have been
away SO much nights, would you, if you had
known she was going away SO soon9 Dear
me, your house has never been the same |
place since. Your wife has never frightened |
up, she has never got over it. She never will |
get over it. How long the evenings are with |
no one to put to bed, and no one to whom to
tell the beautiful Bible stories.
What pity it is that you cannot spend
more evenings at home in trying to help her
bear that sorrow. You can never drown
that grief in the wine cup. You can never
break away from the little arms that used to
be flung around your neck when she used to
say: Papa, do stay with me tonight. Do
stay with me tonight" You will never be
able to wipe away from your lips the dying
kiss of your little girl The fascination of q
bad secret society is SO great that u aAst,paes
a man has turned his back on his home when
his child was dying of scarlet fever. He
went away. Before he got back at midnight
the eyes had been closed, the undertaken hads
done his work, and the wife, worn out with
three weeks watching, lay unconscious in
the next room. Then the returned father
comes upstairs, and he sees the cradle gone
and the windows up. and says: "What is the
matter" On the Judgment day he will find
out what was the matter.
Oh, man astray, God help you! am going
to make very stout rope. You know that
sometimes ropemaker will take very small
threads and wind them together until after
a while they become ship cable. And am
going to take some very small delicate
threads and wind them together until they
make very stout rope. I will take all the
of the marriage day-a thread of
laughter, thread of light, a thread of
music, thread of banqueting, a thread of
and I twist them together
and have one strand.
Then l take thread Of the hour of the first
huFcIC III yOul uouoc, u CuAS Va Iuc udTk |
ness that preceded, and a thread Of the light
that followed; and thread of the beautiful
scarf that little child used to wear when she
bounded out at eventide to greet you; and
then thread of the beautiful dress in which
you laid her away for the resurrection; and
then twist all these threads together, and I
have another strand Then take a thread
Of the scarlet robe of a suffering Christ, and
a thread of the white raiment of your loved
ones before the throne, and string of the I
harp cherubic, and a string of the heart sera-
phic, and | twist them all together, and
have third strand. "Oh," you say, "either
strand is enough to hold fast world" No;
will take these strands and will twist them 9
together, and one end of that rope I will <
'asten, not to the communion table, for it Z
shall be removed; not to pillar Of the organ, b
'or that will crumble in the ages; but wind !
t round and round tho cross Of a sympathiz- !
ng Christ, and, having fastened one end of .
he rope to the cross, I throw the other end to z
7ou Lay hold of It'll Pull for your life Pull !,
or Heavenl ?
A Soldiers First Battle. q